United to cut 1,500 workers

Seeking to cut costs wherever it can, United Airlines on Friday said that it will lay off 13 percent of its white-collar workers and close all of its ticket offices

Meanwhile, unions representing the airline's pilots and flight attendants said their members have begun voting on agreements for hefty temporary pay cuts while their leaders continue negotiating permanent reductions.

The layoff announcement comes less than a week after the airline notified its 11,000 management workers and 70,000 union members that they faced the loss of their jobs as the carrier, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9, continues to slash its operating costs.

Friday's cuts affect 1,500 non-union workers, who will lose their jobs by Jan. 19. United did not specify where those workers are based. The Elk Grove Township-based airline employs 20,000 workers in the Chicago area.

The 188 ticket office workers will be let go by Jan. 28.

Additional layoffs could be coming in the next few weeks, a spokesman said. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, United has laid off more than 20,000.

"These changes are part of the process of creating a new business that is competitive, customer-focused and sustainable," said Sara Fields, United's senior vice president of its people division.

The move to close 32 remaining ticket offices comes 18 months after the airline began shuttering offices in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

United isn't alone. Most other carriers have been closing ticket offices as passengers increasingly have turned to the Internet for booking travel. British Airways closed all of its U.S. ticket offices more than two years ago.

United is facing a tight deadline for cutting its costs under the lending covenants from the providers of its debtor-in-possession financing. The covenants require the airline to have a positive cash flow by the end of October.

"United is transforming in order to consistently deliver on the operations side and significantly improve planning and decision making," the company said in a recorded message to employees Friday.

United said it will focus its efforts on "outstanding customer service, operational excellence and strategy innovation, built on the firm foundation of a cost base that is competitive in the marketplace."

The temporary pay cuts the airline's pilots and flight attendants are being asked to accept are a key to United's restructuring proposal.

The airline's 8,000 pilots are voting on a 29 percent reduction, while 22,000 flight attendants are voting on cuts of up to 9 percent. Many employees believe that the company will seek deeper cuts during bargaining. Two smaller unions also will be voting on pay cuts.

In a letter to union members, Capt. Paul Whiteford, the chairman of the carrier's unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, said the interim agreement "buys us the time we need to understand the company's true financial status in bankruptcy and to protect our contract in a responsible and reasonable restructuring."

"For now, this is what we need to do in order to stabilize the airline," Whiteford said.

United's machinist union has not agreed to temporary cuts. But if the other four unions approve the temporary reductions, the airline will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff to impose 13 percent pay cuts on the 34,000 employees represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.